My border collie, Kate, is a girl with a lot of skills. 

She is often serious…

sometimes silly…

always patient…

and an all around good girl.

She has a lot of jobs here on the farm,

from moving the big boys…

to the little guys…

She knows when to use the power that she posseses and when to turn the other way…

She has a tremendous work ethic and never quits.

I was recently contacted by a local college to provide goose hazing services with my border collie.  I knew I had the dog for the job, but there was a lot of other questions to find answers for.  Thanks to a good friend, the internet, and some really nice people – I have my answers and a new job for Kate.

So, you may ask – what is goose hazing and why does a college need that done?

The goose dog stalks the geese using their ‘eye’.  This unsettles the geese because it looks very similar to how a predator moves and hunts.  The geese perceive this as a genuine threat and therefore are encouraged to move on to a safer location.  Frequent visits are made and the geese soon learn their only option is to move on.

The hazing technique is humane to the geese and the dogs work quietly and unobtrusively.  This means no pesticides, no environmental issues, and no loss of enjoyment of the land or facility by the public or paying patron.

The athletic fields at the college are COVERED in goose poop!  I definitely wouldn’t want to be a soccer player sliding across the ground – YUCK!

Here is Kate in her new work attire…

The orange vest is to help us look official 🙂  There are a lot of people at the college and we wanted to help them understand that it isn’t a loose dog running after the geese.  I think it makes Kate feel important!

We are visiting the college at random times and when we arrived this morning there was just one pair of geese, but while I was getting Kate out of the car a big flock flew in.

As with everything else, she figured the job out very quickly…

and had the geese flying off in a couple of minutes. 

I can’t wait to see where this leads us in the coming year. 

What an awesome job!